new direction for us??

[BrandX]

so last night i got the opportunity to purchase a herd of corriente cattle. I know that it is probably everyones least favorite thing and is looked down on like being a goat herder, but i am not sure angus cattle are working for us. between low breed back and calving problems. the opportunity i have is 80 head for $36,000 thats about $450 a head. now 17 of the are calves. i see some of you guys promoting undervalued cattle, so is this what i have here?

one of the reasons corrients might work for us is that we live one hour form our ranch so we only get to check them once a week so at calving time its best for us to have cattle that calve unassisted in the pasture not in a barn. we only have 110 acres with another 120 we can lease so smaller cattle mean a higher stocking rate. they are good ate eating scrubbier forage since our new ranch is been neglected for a while( no knee high stands of fescue here).

so what are your thoughts, ideas, and criticisms.

 

[1982vett]

For your neighbors sake, invest in some fence stays.....and plan on more than once a week visits till you get all the crawl holes fixed up. They. Are a little easier to hold than goats, but not much. Also find some roping teams to sell your calves to.

 

[ALACOWMAN]

If your having problems making angus work,,Id Have to back up a take a long look at what I'm doing wrong..don't want to jump from the frying pan into the fire...corriente ain't undervalued,, their worth exactly what they bring..

 

[RanchMan90]

They bring what they're worth. Put a char bull with them and the calves will sure be an upgrade. Weaned team roping calves bring $425 here, decent 375 lb char cross steer brings $650. :2cents:

 

[callmefence]

If you come from one of the right families around here you can run cattle on Fort Hood army reservation. Basically turn them out the 200,000 acre pasture with others. You'll see predominantly longhorn and Corriente influenced cows. Big brangus and char bulls. It can work quite well. I do think 80 head on 230 acres of rough land is going to be overstocked. They may be thrifty and small but they still gotta eat.

 

[Farm Fence Solutions]

I still have a handful of Mexican cows. Crossed on an Angus, or Char as Ranchman suggested, they produce some very nice (and profitable) calves. A low maintenance herd is a necessity for us....even more so a few years ago when we had more cattle scattered all over the county in several rent pastures and we didn't see them but once a month all summer. We don't have many problems, but I've always culled pretty hard. They only get one chance around here.

 

[Rafter S]

Just because Angus aren't working for you is no reason to go to Corrientes. No offense to our Angus folks here, but due to the popularity of their breed there have been a lot of cattle sold as breeding stock that should have gone to hamburger. It sounds like you might have gotten some of them.

I know I'm prejudiced toward them, but you might give Brangus a try. They don't need babysitting and will raise you a good calf. I don't know how well Brahman influenced cattle sell in your part of the country, but I'll bet they'll bring more than Corrientes.

 

[BrandX]

If your having problems making angus work,,Id Have to back up a take a long look at what I'm doing wrong..don't want to jump from the frying pan into the fire...corriente ain't undervalued,, their worth exactly what they bring..

Yep so that is what i am trying to do.. one of the things that is not working for us well is we are poor. so we have been buying random bred cows/heifers one at a time form sale barns( with all the obvious disadvantages that come with that.) so if we are already getting others rejects or questionable cattle why pay angus premiums? $1200 or a bred cow hat as ranchman90 says may produce a $650 dollar calf verse getting 3 corrientes for the same money that would generate 3 calves worth $1200(again to quote ranchman90). now of course 3 800 lb cows will eat more than a 1200 cow but perhaps some of the difference could be made up from underutilized grasses(love-grass).

For your neighbors sake, invest in some fence stays.....and plan on more than once a week visits till you get all the crawl holes fixed up. They. Are a little easier to hold than goats, but not much. Also find some roping teams to sell your calves to.

i have heard of people leasing them out of the rode circuit on something like a $35 per head per month.(perhaps a way to earn a little extra?)

as far as the number(80) of head to acres available of course we will sell off animals to an appropriate level for our forages.

we have sold some black corriente bottle babies for $500 in last year which is what i was getting for my angus calves.

thank you everyone for the input. i love good deals but hate to be rushed into them.

 

[ALACOWMAN]

If your having problems making angus work,,Id Have to back up a take a long look at what I'm doing wrong..don't want to jump from the frying pan into the fire...corriente ain't undervalued,, their worth exactly what they bring..

Yep so that is what i am trying to do.. one of the things that is not working for us well is we are poor. so we have been buying random bred cows/heifers one at a time form sale barns( with all the obvious disadvantages that come with that.) so if we are already getting others rejects or questionable cattle why pay angus premiums? $1200 or a bred cow hat as ranchman90 says may produce a $650 dollar calf verse getting 3 corrientes for the same money that would generate 3 calves worth $1200(again to quote ranchman90). now of course 3 800 lb cows will eat more than a 1200 cow but perhaps some of the difference could be made up from underutilized grasses(love-grass).

For your neighbors sake, invest in some fence stays.....and plan on more than once a week visits till you get all the crawl holes fixed up. They. Are a little easier to hold than goats, but not much. Also find some roping teams to sell your calves to.

i have heard of people leasing them out of the rode circuit on something like a $35 per head per month.(perhaps a way to earn a little extra?)

as far as the number(80) of head to acres available of course we will sell off animals to an appropriate level for our forages.

we have sold some black corriente bottle babies for $500 in last year which is what i was getting for my angus calves.

thank you everyone for the input. i love good deals but hate to be rushed into them.

trust me I know what it is to be poor,,and if you do it I hope you well...just put a lot of thought into it....

 

[greybeard]

Just because Angus aren't working for you is no reason to go to Corrientes. No offense to our Angus folks here, but due to the popularity of their breed there have been a lot of cattle sold as breeding stock that should have gone to hamburger. It sounds like you might have gotten some of them.

I know I'm prejudiced toward them, but you might give Brangus a try. They don't need babysitting and will raise you a good calf. I don't know how well Brahman influenced cattle sell in your part of the country, but I'll bet they'll bring more than Corrientes.

He's in the OK City area so Brangus should do fine.
There's a guy up the road from me that was doing pretty good with corriente calves, selling private to roping pens when calf and beef prices were high in '14, but now there's a plentiful supply of cull calves of all breeds, he's had to go back to a beefier breed and sell/take his chances at the sale barn. A char cross of some kind from what I see from the road.

 

[Bigfoot]

I have a plethera of post on here, advocating breeding heifers to a LH or corriente bull. I've sold about all my half LH calves for the year, and I took a real beating. I will say, I had a pretty sorry bull. He amounted to a sperm donor. I "think" the one I used this spring will have better results. Long story short, I know what it cost to keep a cow for a year, and these calves won't cover momma's upkeep. A herd of corriente cows, bred to charlois bull, would be a little different story. Lower start up cost, and slightly lower inputs. I believe when its all said and done, half as many beef cows would be more profitable, than twice as many corriente cows. I have need for both tiedown calves and team ropers. It is cheaper to by them, than it is to raise them.

 

[ALACOWMAN]

How do the corriente handle calving bred to char Bulls ??? If they can't be on hand for angus to calve out,what would the difference be?

 

[wacocowboy]

Before I went out and bought a bunch of corriente I think I would look at some Brahma cross mommas. You don't need to baby sit stuff like Tigers, Brangus, Beefmaster, and Charbray. Just get you a bunch of good old crossbred cows and put a good Brangus, Beefmaster, Char or Hereford bull on them. Lots of Quality Beefmasters in OK that is where my bull in from.

 

[wacocowboy]

How do the corriente handle calving bred to char Bulls ??? If they can't be on hand for angus to calve out,what would the difference be?

Around here the LHs and Corriente seem to do just fine with Char bulls. I don't hear of to many people having trouble with calving.

 

[greybeard]

Dunno about Corriente calving under a Char bull in the case of my neighbor..haven't talked to him lately. He lives on property tho, so he'd be there at calving most of the time.

 

[greybeard]

How do the corriente handle calving bred to char Bulls ??? If they can't be on hand for angus to calve out,what would the difference be?

Around here the LHs and Corriente seem to do just fine with Char bulls. I don't hear of to many people having trouble with calving.

Char bulls got a bad reputation from years ago and some people haven't realized most of that breed aren't creating the huge calves they once did.
You can have calving problems with any breed if you don't pay attention..

 

[wacocowboy]

How do the corriente handle calving bred to char Bulls ??? If they can't be on hand for angus to calve out,what would the difference be?

Around here the LHs and Corriente seem to do just fine with Char bulls. I don't hear of to many people having trouble with calving.

Char bulls got a bad reputation from years ago and some people haven't realized most of that breed aren't creating the huge calves they once did.
You can have calving problems with any breed if you don't pay attention..

Yeah they got some Char bulls now days for heifers. I never messed with them but they say those Camp Cooley Char bloodlines are really good heifer bulls. You are right about any breed I seen an Angus that was supposed to be calving easy with small calves throw 90+lbs consistently.

 

[ALACOWMAN]

I know about the low birth weight chars,, its the corriente i wonder about... small breed, bred to terminal type bull..just curious...

 

[greybeard]

Previous Corriente discussions.
viewtopic.php?t=60040
viewtopic.php?t=88186
viewtopic.php?f=5&t=109363

 

[True Grit Farms]

If the market makes another run like it did in 2014 you'll be fine with half azz calves. In a tough market quality sells at the top by a long ways. There's a few on here that went with longhorn, and cheap cows that seemed to do alright, and a few went backwards - belly up.